A weblog and a wig lady

Longtime commenter Bruce Siegel now has a blog of his own. Check it out! 

Bruce seems to have attracted one or two hostile commenters already. The only explanation I can think of is that his blog's title, which includes the term "militant skeptic," has raised some hackles. Anyway, he is handling those comments with his usual class and patience. 

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Here's a small premonition, of no importance in itself, but interesting as an example of how these things seem to work (at least for me). 

Yesterday I was relaxing in an armchair in a half-awake state of mind. My thoughts ran, for no obvious reason, to an episode of the old TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The villain in that episode was an older woman known as the Wig Lady, because of the obvious wig she wore. It turned out that the wig concealed a hideous demonic creature that emerged from the top of her head and ate people. Ewww. 

Anyway, as I say, there was no obvious reason for me to think of this. The series has been off the air for ten years. I haven't seen an episode of it in a long time, and that particular episode was not one my of favorites. 

A couple of hours later, I was making dinner. My habit these days is to work my way through the complete episodes of a sitcom, either on DVD or Netflix streaming video, while working in the kitchen. (I find this much less stressful than watching the news.) At the moment I'm watching How I Met Your Mother via Netflix. I played the next episode in the queue. 

And there she was - the Wig Lady! Well, the same actress, anyway, playing a small role in this episode. I don't think she appears in any other episodes; it was just a walk-on bit. I might not have even recognized her if I hadn't been thinking of the Wig Lady on Buffy just a couple of hours earlier.

Coincidence? I doubt it. These things happen to me too often, and with too much specificity, to be explained away so easily. They nearly always involve a dreamy, almost hypnagogic state in which free associations take place. And they are almost always trivial in nature, often involving TV shows and other mundanities.

My guess is that when the mind is sufficiently relaxed, it is open to some degree of "information leakage" from what I call N-space (the information matrix that may underlie our perception of physical reality). This leakage generally is random - hence its triviality. In some cases the leakage does seem to carry a message or a meaning; in those instances I would guess that either our own consciousness can explore N-space and pick out the needed data, or some other consciousness (e.g., a spirit guide) can find the data and impress it on our mind. 

By the way, I just looked up the actress. She's Pat Crawford Brown. The HIMYM episode was "Three Days of Snow." The Buffy episode was "Doublemeat Palace." 

Comments

[Bruce Siegel]

Michael, thanks so much for the mention. Actually, none of the comments has been bothersome to me. On the contrary--while one objection does seem pretty weak, most of them have addressed important points that I've enjoyed thinking about and responding to.

And if I'm handling that with a bit of grace, as you suggest, well, maybe it's because I've been watching you do it for many years and have learned a thing or two.

I love your TV-related psi episodes. Back when I was doing a pretty intensive study of my own apparently precognitive dreams, many of them had to do with images I would later see on the TV screen.

In fact, my single most evidential dream--the milestone that made me a fence-sitter no more--involved a story that appeared on the late-night news, twelve hours after a vivid, very quirky, dream.

[Kathleen]

This might not seem similar at all, but I've had similar experiences, but with (don't laugh) gambling on horse racing. I know quite a bit about it - breeding, trainer angles, form, and a lot more. But the more I analyze using hard data (speed numbers, internal race fractions), the worse I do. I do the best when I only lightly associate knowledge and then use intuition. The intuition thing is the thing that rewards me, glancing at the Daily Racing Form, and heading to the window for a big winner. This has happened several times. But when I start looking TOO HARD it's the kiss of death. If only I could refine this a bit better...

[Warren]

This kind of thing is the story of my life - thanks for posting it.

These things are not Jung's "synchonicities", because those are meaningful coincidences. These kinds of things, however, seem totally meaningless and at the same time much more common. What they tell me is that there is some kind of mysterious, intimate link between our "outer" physical life and our inner mental life - a link which our best and brightest, with their cocksure materialist theories, are utterly unable to account for.... Your N-space theory makes as much sense as anything I've been able to come up with in over 50 years of wondering.

[Art]

And you wonder why I am deeply suspicious of free will and lean heavily towards fate and predestination?

Several years ago I dreamed about someone giving me two really large bass. I saw them lying on the ground near a building just as clearly as I can see my hands in front of me. It was a strange dream. I dreamed the same dream a couple of more times and wondered what it meant, if anything?

So about two years later my neighbor (who was also named Arthur) across the field from us called me up and asked me if I wanted some fish. So I went over there and he and his pals had been fishing. They had caught a boat load of Striped Bass. Arthur picked out two large fish, one about 16 lbs and the other about 17 lbs. I was in awe.

Here were my two large bass, lying side by side, just like in my dream, and the building in the background was Arthur's shop where he kept equipment for his construction business. It had taken two years but the bass dream had happened in life.

By the way I think it was the emotion tied to the experience that had caused me to have that precognitive dream. I tend to have precognitive dreams that evoke emotion in me when the experience happens in "real" life. I love fish and it is really expensive and was very happy to get all that free fish. I felt gratitude to Arthur for giving me so much free fish.

[Philemon]

Michael said: "Coincidence? I doubt it. These things happen to me too often, and with too much specificity, to be explained away so easily. They nearly always involve a dreamy, almost hypnagogic state in which free associations take place. And they are almost always trivial in nature, often involving TV shows and other mundanities."

I completely agree with this. I also have trivial premonitions and they also happen when I am in that dreamy state where I am not really focused on any particular thing and my mind is free to roam for a bit. The most impressive bit of information I ever received occurred just as I woke up from a nap. The words were, "Jerry Falwell is dead." Shortly thereafter I turned on the TV and lo and behold - Jerry Falwell had just passed away. However, they are nearly NEVER like that. Today I had an empty schedule at work and "had a daydream" (as I like to call it) that I'd be bothered with something unforeseen in the afternoon. Dead on. Ended up blowing 2.5 hours on something out of the blue rather than doing the assignment I thought I'd be working on.

I always wonder what good this kind of thing is for. Apparently it's just good for being annoying, lol (and keeping your mind open).

[Matt Rouge]

Cool!

[Michael Prescott]

Though most of these things are trivial, I've had a few that were meaningful. Perhaps the most powerful one occurred just a couple of days after my mother passed away. I was talking to myself out loud, as I sometimes do, and saying that I thought life after death could be proved by the standards of a civil case, in which the jury reaches a verdict on the basis of a preponderance of the evidence, but not by the standards of a criminal case, in which there must be proof beyond a reasonable doubt.

A little later that day, I tested some new batteries I'd installed in a remote control by turning on my TV. I had no idea what was on, and simply wanted to see if the remote worked. What came on was a soap opera, and the first words I heard were from an actor playing a lawyer:

"You have to understand, Maggie, that the standards in a civil trial are different from those in a criminal trial. In a criminal trial, you must prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, but in a civil trial you only need a preponderance of the evidence pointing to guilt ..." (A paraphrase, not an exact quote.)

[Bruce Siegel]

"These things are not Jung's "synchronicities", because those are meaningful coincidences. "

How about if a seemingly meaningless "coincidence" (like the precognitive dream I alluded to) ends up being a turning point in your life, because it proves to you that the spiritual dimension is real? Is it still meaningless?

Or even if it's only one of a long list of smaller "coincidences" that gradually accumulate, thus adding up to proof?

This isn't just a clever question or a hypothetical one. It's my story. During a certain period in my life, a whole bunch of otherwise inconsequential dreams, and then a particularly evidential one, combined to change my mind on a very important question, though only a few of those dreams were of any import in themselves.

Given that, weren't all those silly little dreams meaningful? I used to pray for precognitive dreams so that I could be granted the assurance I needed that the universe was as beautiful and mysterious as the NDEs I was reading about seemed to indicate. It seems my wish was granted.

[Barbara]

"Anyway, he is handling those comments with his usual class and patience."

Bah. He hasn't had me there yet...

[no one]

"How about if a seemingly meaningless "coincidence" (like the precognitive dream I alluded to) ends up being a turning point in your life, because it proves to you that the spiritual dimension is real? Is it still meaningless?"

I tend to agree, Bruce.

One of the more meaningful synchronicities I experienced was many years ago (it unsettles me to think about just how many ;-).

I had gone to the Marine Corps recruitment office and over the course of several appointments had taken all of the tests, etc and was handed the final "sign and you're in" documents. My family has a long history of military service and I was feeling very much compelled to continue that tradition.

However, as a certain sense of finality began to settle in my mind, I started to get cold feet and I told them I'd take the paperwork with me and sleep on it. Driving back from the office I became increasingly anxious over the decision I was about to make and I decided to stop at a convenience store and buy a pack of cigarettes. Quite impulsively, on the way into the store, I made a snap decision. I took the folder containing the paperwork and shoved it into the trash can outside the store. At that exact moment a wind came up out of nowhere (I think a wind came up - I really don't know, but that's how I explained what followed) and an American flag hanging over the store façade lifted out of its mooring and landed with a clatter on the ground right beside me. I just stared at it lying there near my feet amongst cigarette butts and slime from spilled sodas and such. The timing was perfect. Paper work entered trash can and flag clatters to the dirty deck. There were no other objects blowing around. In fact everything was rather still. I was shocked and overcome by a sense of guilt to the point where I had to reach into the trash can and retrieve the paper work.

Over the years I have had many of these coincidences/synchronicities. Rarely are they as deeply meaningful or powerful as the above. However, even the seemingly frivolous ones serve to remind me of the magic of life. They're fun! And that's no small thing, really. So, yes, I'd say a useful purpose is served.

[Warren]

@Bruce,

Excellent point, I agree completely!

BTW, thanks for the link on your new blog to Bernardo Kastrup's website. He has some interesting things to say on the subject of philosophical Idealism (similar to Michael's M-space/N-space model).

[Bruce Siegel]

"Bah. He hasn't had me there yet..."

That's true. But I've been practicing. Building my confidence in stages so I'll be ready for you.

[Bruce Siegel]

"Several years ago I dreamed about someone giving me two really large bass."

Art, that's one of the best precognitive dreams I've ever heard. Such an odd image, the same building in the background, the fact that you dreamed the same dream repeatedly, and the strong emotion involved. I love it!

"I am deeply suspicious of free will"

Not me. Without *some* degree of free will, life would be meaningless indeed.

[Claudio from Italy]

Hi.

Some weeks ago I'd made a dream during my afternoon nap. I was on a bridge (or a balcony) and was holding desperately the little arm of my deceased son, Nick. He was goin' to fall down and I was not enough strong to pull him up. I awoke in a pool of sweat and thought of a "normal" nightmare, but... the day after I saw on the news a little Chinese kid IN THAT VERY SAME SITUATION! Luckily his dad was able to wait until the arrive of the rescuers and all ended well. I think that these ESP happens very frequently, but not always there is a validation, may be because we don't care or there isn't a "syncronic event" that can validate them.

[Matt Rouge]

I agree with Bruce that synchronicities are synchronicities whether they appear "meaningful" on the surface or not. Meaningfulness is a relative term, is it not?

[someone]

If you haven't seen this actress before, you clearly haven't seen desperate housewives. :'(. Why can't there be any evidence for a TV show afterlife or something

[Art]

Perhaps these things happen to teach us something? Like there is something more powerful or a higher force pulling the strings. Comfort us? It is a glimpse of the other side. A place of order where things make sense and are more fair than they are in this life?

[lynn]

Just a chance encounter on the internet of some relevance to discussions.

http://www.strangemag.com/mysteryofchance.html

Hmm.. some years ago when doing a tarot card spread which seemed to indicate that there would be an upcoming death in the family. I remember dealing them three times, to make sure. And each time I shuffled and dealt, the spread came out exactly the same. Well I couldnt help but take that a little seriously. In fact the death did come as predicted, and actually occurred unexpectedly that very night. I heard the phone go early at 6 o'clock the next morning, and my husband slowly climb the stairs to tell me. But I knew, not who, but what it meant.

I'm not sure if I have told this story before, anyway..

On a lighter note, walking home one day I was daydreaming and not fully cognizant of what was going on around me. Thinking to myself- it would be nice if there was a little coffee shop just by our apartment like there used to be near our old one, a cool spot to get out out of the 40 degree heat of summer on the way home. When I looked up to see a Thai man with his hand up to stop me, and I thought, "Oh just traffic going into the gas station there", and not looking to see at all what he was directing in. Then set to go again, when once again he put his hand up to stop me. Having had my head down, and still in my own little world, I looked to his right to see what on earth he kept stopping me for. And then realized it was the second truck and trailer with a framework for what was going to be a coffee shop at the gas station on the corner of our street. I chuckled, now hows that for synchronicity I thought. Lyn x.

[FDRLincoln]

A couple of years ago, I had a vividly intense dream that a friend of mine, who I had not spoken to in several months, was leaving her husband and getting a divorce. In the dream, she came up to me, put her arms around me, and told me that she was in pain and leaving her husband.

The dream was very strange, the whole dreamscape environment was lit very brightly, like standing on the sun.

I had no idea their marriage was in trouble. The last I heard, they were very happy.

I woke up in the dream in a cold sweat, it was so vivid. It was such an unusually powerful dream that I got up and sent myself an email, describing the dream so that I would not forget it, and so that I had a verifiable record of when the dream occurred.

A few weeks later, I heard from my friend. She had left her husband and was getting a divorce. And she physically packed her bags and left the house the exact night that I had the dream. In fact, she had left her house about 11 PM.

I had woken up at 1105.

[Alexander Zlotnik]

Hi Michael,
Sorry for off-top, do You still get e-mails from obsessive sick troll Daryl? He seems to create innumerable accounts, and continue to shoot the garbage. Last time I got e-mail from his, as he appears under the name James Cash, trying to trash Leonora Piper.Such a garbage -unbelievable

[Michael Prescott]

I got three emails from James Cash today. He swears he is not Forests. I really don't know or care. Most of his info is taken from debunkers' books that were written decades ago. Some of his points may have some validity, but much of what he says is poorly sourced or incomplete. For instance, he mentions a couple of people who knew George Pellew and did not think he was coming through Mrs. Piper. But he fails to mention the more than 100 people (if I recall correctly) who knew Pellew and were impressed with Piper's seances.

Some of these superskeptics seem to be increasingly frustrated that they can't comment here or elsewhere because of new comment moderation policies. But they have no one to blame but themselves, since they are the reason why these policies were implemented in the first place. Trolling, impersoning legitimate commenters, using multiple identities, using multiple IP addresses, and engaging in scurrilous put-downs are not the best strategies to use if you want to continue being heard.

Karma is cruel!

[Stephen]

I'm sorry that this is kinda off topic and I'm sort of trolling this issue but...

I visited the Wikipedia page on precognition this morning and it was awful. It said things like: no replicable experiments, violates scientific principles (I have a Ph.D. in physics and say this is a B.S. excuse and no I don't mean the degree), no scientists believe in it... yadda, yadda. I fixed and replaced some of the most painfully false statements today. But I think we need to be more proactive in promoting and defending scientific parapsychological results on Wikipedia. It is the first place many people go for reference.

Remember,
"Mainstream scientists reject ESP" is false. The only extant surveys show a majority do believe in the possibility of ESP.

"ESP violates laws of physics/science" is false. Quantum mechanics contains explicit non-locality. No laws of physics prohibit retrocausality or non-locality.

"Parapsychology experiments are non-replicable" is false.

If you see these kinds of statements on Wikipedia pages, please DELETE! The "skeptics" have nothing to back them up.